The First Order

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu reexamined his mind palace to discover the quest to help someone in dire straits to escape had been completed.

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

This was a long-awaited fitness improvement reward. During the night battle with Midnight, Ren Xiaosu had realized the importance of having a good fitness.

During a battle, the most important and essential traits were strength and speed. When he had overwhelming strength and speed, his opponent might not even get a chance to use their superpower.

Furthermore, the fitness of the shadow clone was double that of Ren Xiaosu’s own physical fitness. This meant it was a multiplier of his strength and speed. The greater Ren Xiaosu’s fitness was, the stronger and faster the shadow clone would be! When Ren Xiaosu’s strength increased by one, the shadow clone’s strength would increase by two.

Currently, Ren Xiaosu’s Strength attribute had reached 8.5, and his Dexterity was 5.1. If he faced the two supernatural beings from Midnight again, he would probably have it easier.

However, he clearly remembered the quest was still incomplete when he parted ways with Xu Xianchu yesterday. It looked like Xu Xianchu had finally left Stronghold 109. As such, the palace passed its judgment and decided the quest was completed at this moment.

But didn’t the quests used to be considered complete as long as he showed the attitude to finish it? Why was it different this time? Could the palace feel bad about the fact Ren Xiaosu had been making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat all this while?

But Ren Xiaosu was glad Yan Liuyuan did not fall sick after making a wish this time. In fact, Yan Liuyuan had made a wish as usual again last night. This was not something Ren Xiaosu could stop him from doing as Yan Liuyuan had a mind of his own regarding such matters.

So Ren Xiaosu could have actually tried dodging the bullets instead of using his shadow clone to block the bullets in the alley last night. However, as he was worried the luck factor would cause Yan Liuyuan to suffer, he didn’t depend on that. And since nothing happened to Yan Liuyuan, it meant Yang Xiaojin’s presence on the battlefield was not due to his wish.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Dong Funan, who was washing dishes in the kitchen. He was in a bind regarding how to handle this woman.

Wang Fugui asked Ren Xiaosu, “Will Chen Wudi be fine by himself when y’all go to school?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before asking, “You’re worried he’ll kill her, ain’tcha?”

Wang Fugui chuckled, “Never you mind.”

After breakfast, Ren Xiaosu took the streetcar to school alone while Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan rode the bicycle to school together. In the morning, Ren Xiaosu had instructed Wang Fugui to purchase as many bicycles as he could once the week’s allocated dose of black medicine has been sold for a high price. Furthermore, he wanted everyone to learn how to ride a bike.

Who knew when the day would come when they would need to escape? Those bicycles would come in handy at that time.

They not only had to buy the bicycles but also maintenance tools to repair the bicycles and mend the tires. This was in case the bicycles broke down and became unusable while they were escaping.

Ren Xiaosu got rather excited when he imagined the sight of a group of people riding on bicycles to escape.

…

When Ren Xiaosu arrived in class, Yang Xiaojin was already at her seat. She looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Did anything strange happen other than the battle with Midnight yesterday?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“Last night, the Qing Consortium suddenly upped the reward for the capture of Luo Xinyu for some reason.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “But the Qing Consortium definitely wouldn’t adjust the reward for no reason. There must be something that happened that we’re unaware of.”

“Hmm…” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly, “I don’t know about that. All I did was save Xu Xianchu. Luo Lan’s group was initially chasing after him, but they couldn’t catch up to him in the end.”

Yang Xiaojin stayed silent for some time. She wasn’t actually expecting an answer from Ren Xiaosu. It was just that she and Luo Xinyu were a little perplexed by this.

“Thank you.” Ren Xiaosu thanked her sincerely. Whether or not he could defeat Midnight by himself, he still had to thank Yang Xiaojin for coming to his rescue.

Yang Xiaojin acknowledged him as though it was no big deal. “Why did you save Xu Xianchu? Do you have some other motive for doing so?”

Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “What other motives could I have? We’re friends, after all, and traveled as a group while we were in the Jing Mountains. No matter what, we’re teammates. If something were to happen to you, I’d also risk my life to save you!”

Yang Xiaojin cast him a glance. “OK.”

And so the matter was considered wrapped up. Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was starting to make more and more people his scapegoats now.

Then Yang Xiaojin asked, “What are you planning to do with Dong Funan?”

When Yang Xiaojin had previously brought her up to Ren Xiaosu, she realized he was not fearful of Dong Funan at all. At the time, she even wondered where Ren Xiaosu’s confidence came from. But now it seemed like Ren Xiaosu had more secrets than she had imagined. Moreover, Chen Wudi was likely to be very powerful as well.

“I was just thinking about it.” Ren Xiaosu felt a little speechless when this was brought up. “I can’t keep her with us forever.”

“Why don’t you hand her over to us then?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Why? Are y’all doing studies on supernatural beings as well?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he did not have a good impression of organizations that conducted research on supernatural beings.

“We don’t do studies on supernatural beings.” Yang Xiaojin said slowly, “We only reform them.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at her in a daze. They could be reformed? How would they reform them? By forcing them to go through physical therapy? He said, “I can hand her over to you, but not just yet.” He counted on his fingers. “In four days.”

“OK,” Yang Xiaojin agreed.

At first, Ren Xiaosu intended to ask Yang Xiaojin if there was any compensation for selling Dong Funan to them. But when he thought about how Yang Xiaojin had come to his rescue last night, he did not say anything about receiving compensation.

At this moment, Jiang Wu walked in from outside the classroom. She stood at the lectern and said, “Final exams will officially start tomorrow. I’ll announce everyone’s examination room and number in a while. Your exam numbers are sorted alphabetically by last name, so you don’t have to come to class tomorrow and can head straight to your stated exam room. I wish all of you luck on your exams.”

During this period, the entire class had been studying very hard, except for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, who did not really pay any attention to the lectures. There were a lot of debates and controversies from outsiders about their class, especially regarding Jiang Wu, who was often ostracized by the faculty.

Therefore, these students who had a close brush with death were very motivated to do well for themselves. Speaking of which, it was quite hilarious too. In the entire class, they were all good students except for the class monitor and student councilor, both of whom did not study hard at all.

Jiang Wu stood at the lectern and said, “Some of you have asked about the university’s admission criteria, so I went to check it with the university in Stronghold 109…”

The classroom fell silent. These days, as long as you were an aspiring student, you’d be ambitious enough to attend university, because being a university student in the current day meant having knowledge, status, and money.